Hoe Su Fern

Your favourite/ most memorable project

Each SMU-X has been extremely meaningful and memorable. 

Over the years, the students and myself have had opportunities to work with diverse stakeholders, from The Urban Redevelopment Authority, to National Heritage Board and Centre 42. The projects have also been meaningful such as being able to develop creative placemaking projects for cultural precincts such as Kampong Glam and Bras Basah.Bugis, and initiating project proposals that aim to grow arts and cultural audiences through diverse platforms like the Singapore Heritage Festival and Singapore theatre. We also have a collaborative partnership with ArtsEquator, a digital media platform which covers arts and culture in Southeast Asia, to feature articles written by the students about their SMU-X projects. 

The students have also been extremely fortunate to obtain opportunities to realise their classroom project proposals into actual meaningful projects. For instance, a group of students have obtained an industry grant to produce a movement response to a local theatre script in August 2021, as a means to promote the creative interdisciplinary synergies between theatre and dance. 

I am extremely grateful for these invaluable opportunities that enable deeper engagement and action-learning for the students. While the projects have been admittedly challenging, the students have been able to learn so much more by having to tackle real-world problems. I believe that the projects have enabled them to build resilience and develop essential life skills such as project management, creative problem-solving, stakeholder collaboration and risk management. Importantly, they have also been able to bond with their classmates, by learning how to care for each other, and exercising important interpersonal qualities such as empathy, respect, positivity and openness to feedback. 

I am excited to keep exploring meaningful and favorable collaborations to further enrich the learnings of my present and future students. 

Publications or published articles related to SMU-X projects (if any).

• The Vault: RECALL 2021: https://centre42.sg/the-vault-recall/ 
• Arts Managers: Going Above and Beyond: https://centre42.sg/arts-managers-going-above-and-beyond/ 
• SMU Series - More Than Arts Managers: https://artsequator.com/smu-series-arts-managers/
• SMU Series - Down the Rabbit Hole, We Go: https://artsequator.com/smu-series-arts-for-young-audiences

What you envision for your area(s) of interest and research etc

• To enable better and more resilient conditions for artistic production in Singapore 
• To be able to play a meaningful part in growing the community of resilient arts managers in Singapore
• To advance the recognition of the value of the arts as integral to our overall well-being and sustainability

If you might have a favourite book/ quote/ movie/ musical/movie character /special talent.. please do share your favourite(s)! And let us know why it is your favourite!

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer” – Rainer Maria Rilke in ‘Letters to a Young Poet’